How Editing Can Change a Song

Special thanks to a co-worker of mine for bringing this to my attention.

For those of you who are foolish enough to wake-up before the sun rises on Sunday mornings, I always play “Pat’s Beatles Minute” at 7:57am on WSGW’s The Morning Team Show. It’s just my way of paying a weekly tribute to the greatest Rock-Roll band ever.

My co-worker came across this post about The Beatles, and thought I might enjoy it.

And, did I ever!

Many of us just listen to songs without really thinking about all of the technical aspects that go into producing a sound that will capture our imaginations. Sound editing plays such an important role in creating the final product–sorta like a film editor in movies.

ProSoundNetwork.com provides a striking example of how sound mixing can alter the entire feel of a song.

Here’s the video showing former Beatles producer, Sir George Martin, the late George Harrison’s son, Dhani, and Giles Martin listening to Harrison’s classic, “Here Comes the Sun.” While enjoying Harrison’s vocals, they discover a forgotten guitar solo:

It’s cool to hear a new variation on the familiar tune and envision the elder Harrison in the studio exploring possibilities with this harmony lead. In the end, of course, the solo was scuttled, which brings up the simple but provocative question: Why?

Editing a mix is never easy and knowing when you’ve taken a song a little too far is always a tough call; perhaps they decided that the strident solo might overpower the rest of the piece. On the other hand, it’s a melodic lead and one could argue that they hurt the song by leaving it out.

So what’s your call? Did they made the right choice by scrapping it? Was it a terrible mistake?

Who am I to tell The Great George Martin that he got it wrong? It’s still a beautiful Harrison song, and easily one of the group’s best.

But I kind of liked hearing George’s lead guitar playing along with the orchestra during the bridge.